The Salesby5 Blog

1. It’s easier to give advice than take it. Usually the advice I give is also meant for me.

2. Focus is extremely underrated. The most successful people I know have the ability to focus and get things done.

3. Jobs, places, and things come and go. It’s the people we meet that make life special.

4. It’s my actions that define who I am, not who I say I am.

5. Learning to start my day over was one of the best lessons I ever learned.

6. Humility is the greatest trait I can have as a leader, partner, husband, friend, and father.

7. Having humility is easier said than done.

8. The more I try to learn from successful people the better my chance at success.

9. The only person who can decide if I’m having a good day or bad day is me.

10. The more teachable I am the more I know. The more I know the more I can help others. The more I can help others the better my life, and that’s why I try to remain teachable.

11. Work hard when it’s time to work, but go home when you’re supposed to go home.

Have you ever walked into a store and seen something on sale at an unbelievable price?  If you’re like most customers your first thought is, “Wow. This is great.” But then it’s immediately followed by, “And I wonder what’s wrong with it?” Of course you’re skeptical.  You’ve been told ever since you were a child that if something sounds too good to be true then it probably is. Y ou might be so skeptical that you end up passing on a great deal.

Customers are naturally skeptical.  It’s a defensive mechanism to keep from being taken advantage of or making a mistake.  It can also keep customers from getting a great deal and doing business with a very good company.

Whether we know it or not, we lose sales to skepticism every day.  One of the biggest challenges for independent retailers is overcoming customer’s skepticism of the independent’s prices.  Most believe that an independent’s prices are much higher than the big box or national chains even though that is not always the case.

Skepticism also impacts our ability to make sales. When products are marked down customers often think there must be something wrong with them, or at the very least are something nobody else wanted – so why should they? Customers are also skeptical of brands they’ve never heard of. That’s always one of the biggest challenges when you bring on a new line in a segment where brand recognition is a key part of the decision-making process. You wouldn’t think twice about buying a Canon camera but you can’t say the same for a Rockwood Fosfate subwoofer.

The key to overcoming a skeptical customer is to proactively give them the necessary information to keep them from being skeptical.   If an independent retailer prominently posts a sign telling shoppers about the price guarantee, the customer knows that this store is competitively priced, which may or may not be the case.

The same approach works with markdowns.  If you’re giving the customer a great deal you need to tell them why. A “50% Off Our Top Sellers” or “50% Off Spring Clearance” will always be more effective than just a “50%” sign by itself.  When working one-on-one with a customer you should also explain why something is “such a good deal.”

Thank you Doug Fleener for this piece!

Photo by Twon

Most companies and experts look at the relationship businesses have with their customers in three steps with seven stages. The three steps and seven stages are:

Pre-Purchase
1. Awareness
2. Knowledge
3. Consideration

Purchase
4. Selection or trial

Post-Purchase
5. Satisfaction
6. Loyalty
7. Advocacy

Too bad so many companies take this approach because it has a fundamental flaw. What’s wrong with it? Advocacy should be in the pre-purchase step. Most companies think that only buyers can be advocates, but the fact is that some of your best advocates may not have made a purchase yet – and maybe they never will.

Smart marketers focus on building advocacy during the pre-purchase step for three reasons:
1. To potentially turn non-buyers into advocates.
2. To lead more buyers into becoming advocates.
3. To use the advocacy elements to influence the consideration stage and improve the purchase potential.

To focus on creating advocates in the pre-purchase stages, consider the following:

1. Teach your team that some non-buyers actually create a lot more revenue than the average customer spends. As a matter of fact, some studies have shown that in some businesses the highest spending customers are not the most effective advocates. This is why we like to teach employees to never label a customer as “just a looker.”

2. Make it a company goal to deliver an amazing and delightful experience to every single customer. I love the retailer who told me that her goal is to have every customer who leaves her store feels better than when they came in.

How the experience is delivered varies from business to business (or organization) but what doesn’t vary is that retailers who deliver a superior experience have identified the steps to delivering the experience. It’s usually a combination of activities including a warm welcome, a drink or some other gesture, and may include a surprise that delights the customer. The easiest way to get customers to advocate your business is to give them something to tell others about. People are going to talk so give them the something to talk about! What happens that your customer will most likely tell a friend or family member about?

3. Capture contact information for all visitors. Businesses or organizations who only capture the contact information at the point of sale are losing revenue opportunities and potential advocacy by non-buyers. Give the customer a reason to give you the contact information in the pre-purchase phase and you’ll increase the number of post-purchase people.

A special thank you to our new friend Doug Fleener for allowing to share this info. http://www.dynamicexperiencesgroup.com

Photo by ajstarks